Garment hanger



July 12, 1938. w. G. LUECKE GARMENT HANGER Filed July 6. 1936 PatentedJuly 12, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT oFFici:

8 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in garment hangers and hasspecial reference to hangers particularly designed, among other things,for supporting mens coats and womens dresses.

One of the principal objects of the invention is to provide a hanger forthe purpose mentioned, Which shall make use of the common Wire hanger asa foundation but which shall be provided with a relatively wide and longsurface, shaped to hold the upper part of a mans coat or a woman's dressin proper extended condition; which shall be long enough to extend outinto the shoulder portions of the coat; which extended surface membershall be so interlocked with and braced on the simple wire hanger thatit shall be rigidly maintained in its proper relation to the wirehanger; and which shall be capable of being produced, in quantity, atsuch low cost, that the use of this improved hanger Will not addmaterially to the cost of cleaning and delivering such garments.

A further feature relates to the fact that the extended members are soconstructed that they can be nested together, for packing and shippingpurposes, thus requiring a minimum of space and being protected againstdamage.

A further feature relates to the ease with which the extended surfacemember can be applied to its wire hanger and secured rigidly in placethereon; V 7

Frequently the common wire hangers become rusted and have to be coveredto prevent their staining garments hung thereon, particularly ladiesdresses which are made ofdelicate fabrics and one important advantageresulting from my invention is that the supported garment is protectedfrom direct contact with the wire hanger.

Other features of advantage will appear from the following descriptiontaken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawing, forming part of thisspecification, and in view of the appended claims. 7

In said drawingz- Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a garment hangerembodying the invention in a preferred form Fig. 2 is a plan sectiontaken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary, vertical, longitudinal section taken on theline 33 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a vertically inclined section taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 3;a

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary top plan view of' the inner coacting ends of thecover member as shown in Fig. 1, the twocover members being shown inflat conditionandseparated relation;

'Fig. 6 is a View similar to Fig. 5 but showing the tWo ends slippedtogether, and r Fig. 7 is a fragmentary section similar to Fig. 3

and showing a slight modificationof the invenat 5 and one of the endsformed into a supporting The lower ends of the inclined parts areconnected together and held in position by a horizontally extending part8. This form of wire hanger is quite common and is very cheaplyproduced.

It will be evident that in the use of such a wire hanger the wire has atendency to mark the garment hung thereon and as such wire hangers areusually made of steel they may and frequently do become rusty and staingarments hung thereon.

The cover member 4 which extends entirely over the wire hanger andextends below the supporting parts all around effectively prevents anycontact of the supported garment withthe wire hanger.

Each member 5 is preferably made of some light weight relatively cheapmaterial such as papier-mach or paste-board formed to provide an outersurface 9 which is of a shape which will hold the top portion of asupported garment properly extended and not present any edges to thegarment which might form creases or lines therein. In other words thesurface 9 is rounded down at its lateral edges as shown at H] and at itsouter end as shown at H. 7

Each member t is somewhat wider at its outer end than at its inner endto provide relatively large shoulder supporting surfaces at its outerends as shown.

The inner ends l2 of the two supporting members 4 are each provided withan elongated opening it toreceive the upper part of the Wire hanger asshown at M and just below the point 5 of the wire hanger. As shown at Mthe two end portions of the wire begin to spread out before they arebent outwardly to form the downwardly inclined parts 5.

The elongated openings l3 permit the inner ends of the parts 4 to bethreaded upon the upper part of the wire hanger as shown in Figs. 1 and3. Preferably I form said inner ends so that they can be interlockedlaterally together before they are placed on the wire hanger. As shownin Figs. 5 and 6 the inner end portions l2 are each provided withlongitudinally extending slits l5 symmetrically arranged on each sideand extending out to the extreme ends of these parts.

This construction provides the inner ends l2 of the parts 4 withelongated longitudinally extending tongues l6, one at each side, andpermits the two ends 12 to be slid together into overlapping relationand to bring the two openings l3 into register with each other as shownin Figs. 3 and 6. The two tongues l6 on one end l2 are on the inside andthe two tongues 16 on the other end are on the outside and the bottomends I! of the slots I5 are in contact,- at each side, as shown at I8Fig. 6.

This manner of interlocking the two inner ends of the members holds theinner ends of the parts 4 in closely related position and avoidsoutwardly extending parts upon which a garment might catch.

As explained the openings l3 permit the support member I to be threadedupon the hook I of the wire hanger into the position shown in thedrawing and, as shown, the slots are short enough so that their endswill contact with the inclined parts l4 of the wire hanger and sustainthe parts 4 somewhat above the body of the wire hanger as shown at [9Fig. 3.

The construction described holds the middle portion of the cover memberaccurately and 'firmly in position.

To hold the outer end portions of the members 4 rigidly in position onthe wire hanger I provide downwardly extending wire hanger engagingbrace members 20 one at each end of the hanger. Preferably, though notnecessarily, these brace members are in the form of tongues formed bysevering a central portion of each member along two longitudinal lines2| and a transverse line 22 connecting the inner ends of the two cuts2|. The outer end 23 of this partly severed part forms a hinge uponwhich the tongue can be forced down within the member 4.

The tongue 20 is provided with an opening 24 spaced slightly inwardlyfrom the hinge 23, to receive the inclined adjacent part 5 of the wirehanger and a somewhat elongated central longitudinal slot 25.near itsfree end to receive the lower horizontal part 8 of the hanger and thesetwo openings are connected by a slit 26 so that the tongue 20 can beforced over the adjacent end 21 of the wire hanger 2 into the inwardlyin- 'clined position shown in the drawing. The fact that the tongue 20has to be swung outwardly to the position shown in dotted line Fig. 3 inorder to be assembled with the wire hanger produces a certain amount oftension or spring eiTect at the hinge 23 which tends to retain thetongue 20 in its final position as shown in Fig. 6 in full lines. Theopening 24, provided in the tongue 20, for the upper part 5 of the wirehanger 2 being spaced inwardly from the hinge 23 causes said opening tobe spaced downwards from the outer surface 9 of the part 4 thusretaining the part 5 of the wire hanger 2 spaced downwardly within thepart 4. This construction prevents any garment supported on the hangerfrom contacting with the wire hanger through the opening 28 formed bythe removal of the tongue 20.

The parts 4 of the extended cover member are long enough so that theirdownwardly curved outer ends ll extend beyond the adjacent ends 21 ofthe Wire hanger thus providing a hanger, especially for a mans coat,which is long enough to extend into the shoulder parts of the coat andsupport the coat so as to prevent the formation of shoulder wrinkles.

The outer end portions of the cover member 3 being of considerablelateral width and considerably wider than the thickness of the hanger atits top prevents the crowding of garments together when many of them arehung on a rod support and thus prevents the garments from being sopressed together that they become wrinkled and out of shape.

The parts 4 being duplicates of each other obviously reduces the cost ofmanufacture and simplifies the assembling of the device. Furthermore themembers 4 being more or less yielding can be solidly nested together forstorage and shipment and will serve to protect each other.

While I prefer to form the outer cover member of two duplicate end partsas described it will be understood that as shown in Fig. 7 the covermember may be made in a single piece that is the two end partsintegrally joined at their inner meeting ends as shown at 38 Fig. 7. Itwill be obvious that many of the advantages of the invention arepreserved in this one piece form particularly as to a central opening 3|to permit the cover to be threaded over the hook T the bracing tongues20 for the outer ends of the cover and the nesting of the parts forstorage and shipment.

As many modifications of the invention will readily suggest themselvesto one skilled in the art I do not limit or confine the invention to thedetails of construction and operation herein shown and described exceptwithin the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:-

1. In a garment hanger of the kind described a hanger formed of wire toprovide two oppositely extending and downwardly inclined supportingparts, their lower ends integrally connected by a horizontally extendingpart, and the wire formed into a suspension hook extending above theconnection of the two inclined parts, in combination with an extendedsurface member, formed to fit within the upper part of a mans coat orwomans dress and retain it, when hung thereon, in proper extended shape,the extended surface member having a central opening enabling it to beapplied to the wire hanger by passing the suspension hook therethrough,and also provided with tongues partly severed from the main body andspaced inwardly from its outer ends provided with openings for receivingboth the inclined and horizontal parts of the wire hanger as and for thepurpose specified.

2. The invention defined in claim 1, and said extension member extendingappreciably beyond the said tongues and the ends of the wire hanger andsufiicient to extend into the shoulder portions of a mans coat as andfor the purpose specified.

3. The invention as defined in claim 1, and said tongues provided withslits to receive the parts of the wire hanger and provide upper andlower contacting edges as and for the purpose specified.

4. The invention defined in claim 1, and said extended surface memberbeing made of two end parts provided at their inner ends withco-operating interlocking parts as and for the purpose specified.

5. The combination with a one piece wire hanger of the kind describedand having a suspension hook at its top, of an extended surface memberhaving an opening to receive said hook, and tongues, one at each side,hinged at their upper ends to said member and spaced inwardly anappreciable distance from the outer ends thereof, said tongues eachprovided with a single slit arranged and adapted to receive the upperand lower members of the wire hanger and to inter lock therewith toprevent relative movement both vertically and laterally.

6. The improvements herein described and comprising a common singlepiece wire hanger of the kind shown in combination with a covertherefor, the supporting surface of the cover being curved transverselyand formed to fit within the upper part of a garment such as a mans coator a ladys dress and hold same in extended condition, and parts spacedappreciably inwardly from the ends of the cover hinged thereto andformed to interlock with both the upper and lower members of the wirehanger, as. and for the purpose specified.

7. The invention as defined in claim .6, said tongues being formed outof the body of the cover and hinged thereto at their outer ends andarranged and adapted to be swung down on said outer hinged ends toengage the wire hanger.

8. The invention as defined in claim 6, said tongues being formed out ofthe body of said cover by being partly severed therefrom and integrallyjoined at their outer ends to the body of the cover, and provided with aslit, one end of which is spaced inwardly from the hinged end andadapted to receive the inclined part of the wire hanger and hold saidcover member spaced above said inclined part of the wire hanger as and.for the purpose specified.

WILLIAM G. LUECKE.

